Rabble Rousing
by Trixie7
Summary: Inspired by the promo for 1x20 and hope for a redeemed Grant Ward, this is the possibility that my muse grabbed hold of and wouldn't let go of.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note - **Inspired by the promos for 1x20 "Ragtag" and a bigger story that I've been working on and hoping to develop into something coherent. Thanks to the announcement that Director Fury was going to be in the final episode of the season this little plot bunny sat up and demanded to be written and published. I have not seen any episodes after 1x15 "Yes Men" so apologies if I've made an error with anything that became canon after that point, but I wanted to get this up before 1x20 was aired anywhere

* * *

"Don't do it! I know you care about us Ward!" Fitz yelled through the intercom. He couldn't believe it had come to this. The last few days had been the craziest of his life and he had seen some crazy things since joining S.H.I.E.L.D. The difference now was that friends were turning on one another. Ward who had saved Jemma, made sure he had come back from South Ossetia, and been on countless missions with them, fought side by side with them was actually a HYDRA agent and getting ready to kill them all. Fitz had managed to get the planes communication system working and now he was appealingly directly to Ward. If there was a single aspect of Wards' personality that had been honest with them in the last seven months then this was Fitzs' last chance to appeal to it.

"Ward, it's Tripp, I've figured it out! I know when he recruited you! Jesus! I can't believe I didn't see it earlier, you tried to warn me and I wasn't listening properly. It must have been just like 1999 all over again for you when I blew you off - at least from your perspective. Garrett is who got you out of juvie isn't he! Man we wondered for years where you had gone and then you just turned up on an op with Lily in '09. Ten years off the reservation and there you were on a S.H.I.E.L.D. She was gobsmacked! And you didn't acknowledge her, granted it was a protocol we dreamed up when we were 12 but Christ Grant there was a code word, we all knew it and you didn't use it. And stupidly we took that to mean that you were cutting us off, but you weren't were you, you were protecting us all still! Man, Grant, your brother, he did a number on you didn't he and none of us could see, too young still, too naive of the world and the way it works. The rest of us we had normal loving families and could never see that you and Drew didn't. We just thought Maynard was a bit of a bully. And you mom and stepdad, they never came to the farm so we never saw how bad things were for you and Drew." There was a desperate edge now to Tripp's tone. "But I know enough to know that you don't want us all to die, you're not whoever it is Garrett has made you believe you are. Okay, he's had a hold on you a long time, but he doesn't understand you the way we do, we're going to make sure you get through this.. There's no denying you've done things since HYDRA was revealed but I know we can work something out, just please don't do this now. I promise I will stand by you every step of the way and looking at them right now, I'm sure Fitzsimmons will too!"

"Absolutely, Ward," cried out Leo, "every step of the way. I don't believe anyone is born evil, and that right now you think you've got a good reason for why you've had to do this. But I'm sure you've got a good reason as to why you don't have to do it either."

"Snivelling fools, although I'm interested in how my boy Tripp knows anything about your childhood. Hell of an agent though isn't he, made some accurate guesses there about how I recruited you. But you have no better side, your older brother beat that out of you long before I came on the scene. There is no goodness in the man I made."

"Grant," Jemma spoke more softly to her team mate than either of the two men in the room with her had. "I've sent out a code 19-5 out to everyone, it applies to you. It's _for _you." Leo was looking at Jemma in confusion and missed the beep that unlocked the door. Tripp grabbed the pair of scientists and started to run towards the containment room. Right now Ward was vulnerable, Tripp had maybe five seconds before Garrett realised that they had been released into the plane rather than the atmosphere. And he didn't want to give the men much chance to move around the small room. He would only have one chance to get a shot off at Garrett and if unsuccessful they were all going to die. He opened the door, ICER raised, took aim and fired, Garrett slumped over the table. Tripp turned to Ward

"Will I have to shoot you too?" Ward had become pale and was leaning heavily against the wall. He shook his head at Tripp.

"No, I'll come quietly. I'd appreciate it if you could find somewhere else to lock me up. I don't want to me with him when he wakes up"

"I can put a medical isolation lock on your bunk door," Jemma was behind Tripp again. "You can stay there until we talk to Coulson. Come on" She reached out to Ward.

Grant Ward stared at the small hand of his team mate. It and her words were like beacon of hope to him. He raised his gaze to her eyes, there he could see compassion and sympathy. His gaze moved to Tripp and he nodded in agreement with Jemma's idea.

"Right," Tripp nodded his head indicating that Ward should move in front of him back towards his bunk. Moments later Ward was secured in his room under the highest medical isolation Jemma could place on any of the bunks. Turning to TRipp she raised her eyebrows and asked him.

"Now what?"

"Now we have to figure out how to get Garrett off this plane, without releasing grant to the authorities and we have to do it in a way that Coulson doesn't think that we're some sort of deep cover HYDRA agent biding their time. We also have to get him back to the farm pronto as you've alerted everyone that there is an emergency and that's where we should be meeting within the next 12 hours. A code 19-5! That's the highest level emergency!"

"Oh _I'm_ sorry! Is this _not_ the highest level emergency? What exactly would constitute one for you? The loss of a limb - or perhaps death! Where exactly do you want to draw the line Antoine? That code is meant to be used when there is _NO_ other option. I think that right now is that point for Grant don't you!"

"Uh guys…" Leo interrupted them, "what exactly is going on here, because the pair of you are starting to freak me out!"

"Leo," Jemma softly turned to him, "it's not….."

"No! Don't try and justify things to me something else is definitely going to on here - you two are talking about codes and a shared history and as though you knew Ward before any of us got on this bus. Why haven't any of us released Coulson and May from his office? Is this all some sort of double agent play that I am falling for."

"Leo!" Jemma shouted, "Let's release Coulson and May from his office and then we'll start talking - I think if this is a story Tripp and I are going to share, we're going to share it just the once - where is Skye?"

Fitz lunged towards the holotable, deactivating the lock on Coulson's office and releasing the two agents there and running a scan on the planes cameras to locate Skye. Finding her downstairs in the lab he unlocked the door allowing her access to the rest of the plane, while Jemma called out to her Coulson and May were exiting his office with their weapons raised.

"Oh guys, we're safe, Garrett is knocked out with the dendrotoxin and Ward is secured in his bunk." Jemma reassured the rest of her team.

"Why isn't he in the containment room?" Coulson demanded.

"Jemma and I have a good reason for that and we're hoping that you'll hear us out. " Tripp spoke from behind the bar a bottle of scotch in one hand and a stack of glasses in the other.

"You see. it all starts with some World War II Hydra experiments."

"Seriously Jemma, you think that's the way to start this off, in the current climate?" Tripp asked

"Ummmm…"

"Ok, I'm going for a blunter approach that will hopefully not get us shot anytime soon, at least not by these guys. Right, well, let's see."

"Not so easy is there Tripp!"

"Thanks Jemma, okay blurting it out then. HYDRA is not the only secret organization within S.H.I.E.L.D., except ours is for the forces of good rather and evil and because of that we need to bring Ward back home. And for now we need you to trust us on that, at least until we get Garrett off this plane and then we'll explain everything. We'll get Garrett off the plane do a thorough sweep for listening devices and other threats that may have occurred and then we want to bring you all back home. We know things are weird right now and in the current situation we've got no right to ask this of any of you but if you can get Agent Hill to Grant us custody of Ward for 96 hours after we turn Garrett in we will explain everything. I know Leo that Jemma made it sound like we'd tell you as soon as we released the others from where they'd been locked in. But Garrett and Ward have had the opportunity at various times over recent months to place devices on this plane, I know you've done a sweep recently but since then other people have been on the board and things have happened. But I swear and I'm sure Jemma would too that we are not out to harm you, we're trying to protect you, will you give us that chance?


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note - **Inspired by the promos for 1x20 "Ragtag" and a bigger story that I've been working on and hoping to develop into something coherent. Thanks to the announcement that Director Fury was going to be in the final episode of the season this little plot bunny sat up and demanded to be written and published. The last episode I've actually seen is "Yes Men", so there are potential spoilers up to that point and then the 1x20 promo.

"Are you _nuts!_" Skye exclaimed. "You want us to keep him on the plane! No way! Tell them A.C.! He can't stay"

Coulson's gaze flicked between the three agents two pleading for Ward and one against him, both of the female agents were getting quite emotional, but Tripplet was staring at him, fully prepared to maintain eye contact.

"Ninety six hours - why so long?"

"It's only four days. And it's long enough for us to see if we're right about him and if we're not it's plenty of time for us to see that there is nothing we can do for him and then we'll be able to move towards accepting that."

"If you want me to attempt to get Hill to agree to this I'm going to need something more than my belief in the pair of you. I'm willing to keep him for four days so that you can work this out of your system but she's going to need more than that."

""What?!" Skye had turned to him in disbelief and betrayal in her eyes.

"Skye, you got a second chance with us."

"I didn't kill anyone in the process of ruining my first chance!"

"But you could've done," Jemma turned to her. Skye's jaw dropped. "When you were with the Rising Tide they were releasing information that they thought the world had a right to know about and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents nearly died in the field because of it. I know that wasn't your intention. But we don't know what hold Garrett has over Ward and how he has manipulated him. Tripp and I we suspect we know the event that got the ball rolling on this and if we're right then perhaps Ward wasn't just protecting himself in his actions, maybe he thought he was protecting us from Garrett and from HYDRA and we won't know the answers to those questions until we can assure Ward that he is safe from Garrett and that is not going to happen on this plane, it's going to happen somewhere that Ward feels safe."

"Jemma," Skye's voice was now filled with hurt.

"I'm sorry Skye, I know that was never your personal intention but the group that you were working with, the information they released. We don't know what Ward's personal intentions were in any of this. Sure we know HYDRA has evil intentions but until we talk to him we won't find out what his motivation was. And me, I need to know his motivation. Agent Coulson, sir, you can tell Agent Hill that I requested this. Ward jumped out of a plane in order to save my life, he could have let me die. He could've pretended that he wasn't able to catch me in time, he'd cemented your trust in him just by jumping. But he didn't just jump and I have to find out why."

"Ok, I'll talk Hill into letting us have him for ninety six hours." Coulson agreed

Skye looked stricken at their leader but didn't disagree. May had been silent throughout the discussion but nodded her head in agreement, and Leo just smiled.

"We can be back in D.C. in thirty minutes, drop him off with Hill and then head to …. wherever it is the pair of you are looking to bring us."

"Thank you sir." Jemma smiled up at him, while Tripplet nodded to him. "I'm going to go look in on Ward, would you join me Tripp? I'm going to get some supplies from the lab first - would you make him a sandwich?"

Five minutes after collecting some medical supplies from the lab and armed with a ham sandwich and a coffee for Ward, Jemma deactivated the lock Ward's bunk. He had laid down on his bunk and was staring at the ceiling.

"Grant, we brought you a ham sandwich and something to drink."

Ward moved his head towards them but said nothing.

"Simmons and I have managed to convince Coulson to give us a couple of days with you after we drop off Garrett. We're going to take you somewhere safe. But first we need to make sure that we're safe with you. Is there a chance that HYDRA has placed a tracking device on or in you anywhere? Can we bring you there?"

Ward abruptly sat up on the bunk, placing his feet solidly on the floor he looked Jemma in the eye to tell her.

"I've no idea," he shrugged, "I don't think so, I've always had to pass medicals and security checks at different S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. There would never be a way to guarantee that it wouldn't be detected but I couldn't guarantee it. Can you check me over?"

"I'll have to talk to Fitz - maybe he can get the D.W.A.R.V.E.S. to scan you and see what comes up."

"Thank you Jemma, Tripp. I really appreciate the chance you are giving me"

"Shh! You don't need to say anything, you saved my life remember and until we've run a sweep on the both you and the rest of the plane you shouldn't say anything. We'll be back in D.C. within the next half hour where we'll be getting rid of Garrett and sweeping the plane for bugs."

"We're going to get all this sorted out Ward and get to the bottom of everything. I for one am looking forward to hearing your perspective of how you were recruited by Garrett just as I'm looking forward to telling you about -"

"Tripp, bugs! Be quiet!"

"Jemma," Tripp looked unhappy, "I just -"

"I know what you _just _want to do, but we can't take any chances, not until Fitz has checked the plane."

"You know what, you guys, you should probably just leave me be. We're going to have to go through all this anyway when we …. get to our final destination and until then the temptation to say something that might indicate to unfriendly ears where that is just too great. Lock me back up. It'll give me a chance to run over the complete events since I was recruited anyway, try and make sure that I don't leave anything out. Ninety six hours may not turn out to be a very long time." He grimaced at the other pair in his bunk space. "There's a lot to tell about the last fifteen years."

"Ten minutes to landing," May's voice came over the comms system.

"Okay, we're going to lock you back in now, but Fitz and I will be back to scan you over, so unless you need anything else?"

"No, I'm good. Thanks."

Fifteen minutes later the Bus had landed and parked at a S.H.I.E.L.D. hanger and was swiftly boarded by armed guards, Maria Hill at the front of the group. Jemma observed from behind the doors of her lab as Coulson approached Hill while making herself look busy at the microscope. She could hear some of the words being exchanged between the pair.

"Four days, Phil, then your biochemist can get over whatever she feels she owes Ward and we can get to interrogating him about his HYDRA knowledge. We'll be occupied over the next four days breaking Garrett down and trying to figure out all the information he gives us and if there are anymore deep cover HYDRA agents we haven't identified. We need to know who these people are before they start infiltrating other agencies. If the aftermath of World War Two taught us anything, it's that we can't let these bastards get their feet in the door of our intelligence and security services or else we'll be working once again to bring down them down."

Ten minutes later, Garrett, his guards and Hill were gone and while the cargo doors had been shut they were going nowhere until Leo had the chance to complete his scans. With nothing important to do and still trying to wrap her head around the events of the last couple of hours and how that might fit into other puzzles that she had noticed over the last couple of years. She wanted to have a clear list in her head of the questions she had for Grant and Tripplett and the others when she got home. She was also sure that the rest of her team had questions for her and her plea for Grant to stay with them was most certainly the one that they all had on their minds. She just had to keep them at bay for another couple of hours. She rounded the corner from the team's leisure area to the command centre and found May, Coulson and Skye gathered round the table and go abruptly quiet when they spotted her. Just as the silence was starting to get uncomfortable, Jemma was relieved to hear Coulson speak.

"Fitz is about 40% through scanning the plane with the D.W.A.R.V.E.S, he has already scanned Ward, Tripplett was with him. As soon as he is done I'm going to want answers Simmons, we're putting faith in you. Faith I hope is deserved but the last couple of days have put us all on edge and I hope you understand when I say that I don't know how much patience I have left."

"Sir, I do understand, the thing is, what I think is happening, rather what I hope is happening with Ward, well it's not something that I'm sure he is just going to discuss on the plane. Where I want to go is within…. a reasonable flying time. You'd have answers before the day was over, that's if I'm right. If I'm not and Ward is HYDRA well then, it won't take us long to fly him back to Hill's custody. We could probably make that return journey tonight as well if you wanted to."

"Simmons, I thought you wanted to give Ward a second chance. You're not giving him long to take advantage of that."

"It's not a second chance at S.H.I.E.L.D. that I want to give him sir, it's a chance to explain the process that brought him to HYDRA. I think he's been put in a situation that meant that he thought he was doing the right thing and I want to give him the environment where he might realise that the time has come to explain that to those who are prepared to listen and understand what has gone on. I don't want to say too much more, mostly because this is one of those situations that I really want to be right but am trying to mentally prepare for being wrong. I do want to say thank you to all of you for giving me your trust in this, it means alot to me, and I know it will mean alot to other people as well if I'm right."

She stepped away from them. She understood that being left in the dark with her vague double speak had to be disconcerting to them. She wandered to her bunk and decided that until the scans of the plane were finished she should settle herself in with a book and stop trying to overthink what may or may not come in the hours ahead.


End file.
